Proverbs 6:5

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Of the hunter.—This, or some such phrase (perhaps, the hand “that held him”), must be supplied here.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-5 If we live as directed by the word of God, we shall find it profitable even in this present world. We are stewards of our worldly substance, and have to answer to the Lord for our disposal of it; to waste it in rash schemes, or such plans as may entangle us in difficulties and temptations, is wrong. A man ought never to be surety for more than he is able and willing to pay, and can afford to pay, without wronging his family; he ought to look upon every sum he is engaged for, as his own debt. If we must take all this care to get our debts to men forgiven, much more to obtain forgiveness with God. Humble thyself to him, make sure of Christ as thy Friend, to plead for thee; pray earnestly that thy sins may be pardoned, and that thou mayest be kept from going down to the pit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Better, "Do this now, O my son, and free thyself when thou hast come into thy friend's house; go, how thyself down (perhaps "stamp with thy foot," or "hasten"), press hotly upon thy friend. By persuasion, and if need be, by threats, get back the bond which thou hast been entrapped into signing:" The "friend" is, as before, the companion, not the creditor.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. The danger requires promptness.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

With all possible expedition, as the roe runs swiftly away.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,.... As such a creature, which is very swift, when it is got into the hand of the hunter, will strive and struggle to get out; so should a man try all ways and means to get out of his suretyship engagements, especially when he finds himself liable to danger by it; this he should do "immediately" and "out of hand" (g), as the phrase here used sometimes signifies with the Jewish writers;

and as a bird from the hand of the fowler; another metaphor, signifying the same thing.

(g) "statim", De Dieu; "subito", Noldius, p. 859. No. 1630. "ilico, repente", so some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 143.

Geneva Study Bible

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. of the hunter] These words, which are not in the Heb., are not necessary to the sense. The struggling roe forces itself from the hand (be it of hunter or of anyone else) that has laid hold on it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - The struggles of the roe and the bird to escape from the snare are employed figuratively to describe the efforts which the surety is to make to tear and free himself from his friend. From the hand of the hunter (Hebrew, miyyad); literally, from the hand, as shown by the italics. The variation in all the ancient versions, with the exception of the Vulgate and Venetian, which read "from the snare," suggests that the original text was mippath instead of miyyad. The Hebrew yad, "hand," may, however, be used by metonymy for a toil or gin; but this is improbable, as no example of this kind can be found. With regard to the addition, "of the hunter," though this does not occur in the original, the parallelism would seem to clearly require it, and Bottcher maintains, but upon insufficient evidence, and against the reading of all manuscripts, which omit it, that the word tsayyad, equivalent to "of the hunter," formed part of the original text, but has fallen out. The plain reading, "from the hand," may, however, be used absolutely, as in 1 Kings 20:42, "Because thou hast let go out of thy hand (miyyad)," in which case the hand will not be that of the hunter, but that of the person for whom the one is surety. Roe. There is a paronomasia in ts'vi, equivalent to "roe," and tsiphor, equivalent to "bird," of the original, which is lost in the Authorized Version. The ts'vi is the "roe" or "gazelle," so named from the beauty of its form (see also Song of Solomon 2:7-9, 17; Song of Solomon 3:5; Song of Solomon 8:14; 1 Kings 5:3; Isaiah 13:14). Tsippor is a generic word, and represents any small bird. It is derived from the twittering or chirping noise which the bird makes, the root being tsaphar, "to chirp, or twitter." As to its identification with the sparrow, Passer montanus, or the blue thrush, Petrocossyphus cyanens (see 'Bible Animals,' Rev. J.G. Wood, p. 405, edit. 1876). Proverbs 6:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The naked מיּד is not to be translated "immediately;" for in this sense the word is rabbinical, not biblical. The versions (with exception of Jerome and the Graec. Venet.) translate as if the word were מפּח [out of the snare]. Bertheau prefers this reading, and Bttcher holds חיּד [a hunter] to have fallen out after מיד. It is not a parallelism with reservation; for a bird-catcher is not at the same time a gazelle-hunter. The author, if he has so written, has conceived of מיד, as at 1 Kings 20:42, as absolute, and connected it with הנּצל: tear thyself free like the gazelle from the hand into which thou hast fallen (Hitzig); according to which, the section should be accentuated thus: הנצל כצבי מיד. צבי, Aram. טבי, Arab. zaby, is the gazelle (Arab. ghazâl), so called from its elegance; צפּור, the bird, from its whistling (צפר, Arab. ṣafar, R. צף, cf. Arab. saffârat, the whistling of a bird), Arab. safar, whistler (with prosthesis, 'aṣafwar, warbler, Psalm. p. 794). The bird-catcher is called יקושׁ (from יקשׁ, after the form יכל, cog. קושׁ, Isaiah 29:21, נקשׁ, R. קש), after the form בּגוד (fem. בּגודה), or יקוּשׁ; one would think that the Kametz, after the form kâtwl (vid., under Isaiah 1:17), must here be fixed, but in Jeremiah 5:26 the word is vocalized יקוּשׁים.